I consider myself a competent multi tasker.  I wasn’t always able to leap buildings with a single bound; these skills were honed these past 31 years while running a household, raising four children (two dogs, two cats and what could be considered a plague of small rodent like animals), taking care of my nana (similar to a child but not as cute), running a planting business, did I mention PTA, hospital fundraisers…. you get the idea. I got so good at multi tasking that I could talk on the phone while cooking dinner and still clean someone’s backside without missing a beat. –there were no cordless phones either, just phones with really long cords. Multi tasking a modern-day household is best described by Erma Bombeck — “Some days it’s like living in the eye of a hurricane.  It’s refereeing a family of differences.  It’s puppeteering  a houseful of personalities.  It’s making more decisions in a single hour than an umpire makes in nine innings. It’s the constancy of a job that runs from one night into the next day and into that night and into the next morning.”

The question is how to come down off that multi tasking high.  I’m like addict hooked on adrenaline.  How can I fill my day with so much time to get things done? I’m not half as productive with all this free time as I was with no time.  There is only so many Law & Order reruns to watch.  It’s gotten to the point that finding an episode I haven’t seen is as rare as finding a pearl in an oyster. How can this junkie get what she needs.  I’ve taken up knitting. I’ve cleaned out closets, the attic, even the basement has not escaped my attention. I was starting to question my existence.

Thank God for Christmas!  There is no event bigger in the multi tasking department.  I got a reprieve, they brought me back off the bench. With a smack on the behind I’m back– making lists, decorating, shopping, planning family gatherings — I’m almost on overload, just about falling behind.  It’s where I do my best work– fourth quarter two-minute  warning!  I have to bake cookies!   Did I mention wrapping?

I think I can keep this train going until January.  The kids mentioned getting a dog — could keep me going for the next two years– maybe I am high! Hopefully I come to my senses before I do something crazy.